376 back in time

Yesterday I was supposed to be doing taxes, so of course I did some digging through our storage, and when that wasn't enough, moved on to yardwork.

Above is a slide of the living room at the apartment I lived in before meeting Deb, the Circle-R-Ranch. The stage was built for a video zine pilot we shot, tragically about 3 years before YouTube got going.

Last I knew, that fridge was still in operation as an entertainment center, having made the move to another apartment in the Mission.

Here's Mr. Snake and the man who shall be known as Pothead working the cameras. We were shooting a talk show style, with three cameras.

Some of it actually got edited together and was up on Al Gore's streaming channel for a while, but most of it is in this box of tapes I no longer have any ability to play.

Here's another one I dug up, from making Miller's High Life. That's Mr. Snake again. I may not be the best filmmaker ever, but I'm pretty good at spotting talent.

There's a lot of reckoning with what the fuck we just went through going on. There seems to be a realization that like many emergencies, some power players have taken advantage of the situation and grown their power. In general, the finger seems to be pointed at big tech (Google, Amazon, Facebook) and government.

Wait for it...


The groups who told us to stay home, and the groups who enabled us to do so without completely losing it.


Some people are questioning whether this is good.


The answer of the tech titans tends to be, "but we're evolving into this higher lifeform with the help of technology."


They make an argument that since humans recognized consciousness, our goal has been to achieve unlimited awareness, free of physical limitations. This could be achieved by downloading our brains onto the cloud. This, they say, is the next step of evolution.


Some others say, whoa, wait a minute, we were born with everything we need. Seeing the world through my phone is not a step forward, my eyes work better! Evolution, they argue, isn't about competition and the survival of the fittest. Evolution is about working together and fitting in. Enhanced humans will not necessarily "win" at evolution, evolution doesn't really look for winners. It's not a winner take all situation. Evolution looks for cooperation. Filling the niche. Adapting. Lots of times, that actually means getting smaller. 


And then there's my point of view, which believes technology is its own life form, and that currently, it is evolving in codependency with humans. We're the mitochondria of the digital brain or whatever. The masters of the universe who sit on stage at Davos and make bold proclamations about technology saving us all are actually the most devoted, snivelling of servants.

This ebike (there are pedals) costs $350 in China.

I think it looks pretty good. The kids seat, even.

And then of course there's the three wheeled food vendor in the background. Pretty cute.


Oh yeah, Covid is popping off again. 4th wave. Because so many of us are vacced, 1 in 3 hospitalized is under 45.

The British variant is part of the cause. People partying without masks is another. (Sorry, universe.)

And a fog pic to bring things around again.



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